List of notable people from Kolkata. The city of Kolkata has been regarded as the cultural capital of India.
Writers, Including poets
Philosophers and religious teachers
The most famous religious figure of Kolkata is Mother Teresa. Others are (in order of surname):
Engineers and scientists
- James Atkinson (1780âÂÂ1852), surgeon, artist and Persian scholar
- Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay (born 1968), computer scientist
- R. D. Banerji, archeologist
- Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (1858âÂÂ1937), Bengali polymath, physicist, biologist, biophysicist, botanist and archaeologist
- Upendranath Brahmachari
- Bikas K Chakrabarti (born 1952), theoretical physicist and econophysicist
- Asima Chatterjee (1917âÂÂ2006), chemist
- Debendra Mohan Bose (1875âÂÂ1975), physicist
- Satyendra Nath Bose (1894âÂÂ1974), physicist and polymath from Bengal
- Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay (1890âÂÂ1977), Bengali linguist
- Barun De (1932âÂÂ2013), historian
- Brajendranath De (1852âÂÂ1932), civil servant and orientalist
- Anil Kumar Gain (1919âÂÂ1978), mathematician and statistician
- J.B.S. Haldane (1892âÂÂ1964), British-Indian scientist, known for his work in the study of physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics
- Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1893âÂÂ1972), Bengali scientist and applied statistician
- R.C. Majumdar (1884âÂÂ1980), historian
- P. J. Marshall (born 1933), historian
- Ujjwal Maulik (born 1965), computer scientist
- Subhash Mukhopadhyay (1931âÂÂ1981), physician
- Sisir Kumar Mitra (1890âÂÂ1963), physicist
- Shehla Pervin, Indian scientist and scholar
- Rajat Kanta Ray, historian
- Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri (1922âÂÂ2005), physicist, known for his research in general relativity and cosmology
- Tapan Raychaudhuri (1926âÂÂ2014), historian
- Tapati Guha-Thakurta (born 1957), historian
- Sukanta Chaudhuri (born 1950), literary scholar
- Ananda Lal (born 1955), academic and theatre scholar
- C. R. Rao (1920âÂÂ2023), mathematician and statistician
- Prafulla Chandra Roy (1861âÂÂ1944), Bengali chemist, educationist, historian, industrialist and philanthropist
- Meghnad Saha (1893âÂÂ1956), astrophysicist
- Sir Jadunath Sarkar (1870âÂÂ1958), historian
- Sumit Sarkar (born 1939), historian
- Susobhan Sarkar (1900âÂÂ1982), historian
- Tapan Kumar Sarkar (1948âÂÂ2021), electrical engineer
- Ashoke Sen (born 1956), theoretical physicist
- Sukumar Sen, historian of Bengali literature
Gallantry Awards winners
Ashoka Chakra
Maha Vir Chakra
Bankers and business people
Freedom fighters
Performing arts
Artists
Directors
Cinema actors
- Pt. Debshankar Haldar, actor
- Nabadwip Haldar, actor and comedian
- Goutam Halder, actor and director
- Uttam Kumar, actor, singer, composer, producer, director and screenwriter
- Kaushik Ganguly, actor, director and screenwriter
- Koushik Sen, actor and TV personality
- Mithun Chakraborty, actor, dancer and TV personality
- Rabi Ghosh, actor and comedian
- Ranjit Mallick, actor
- Dhritiman Chaterji, actor
- Tapen Chatterjee, actor
- Barun Chanda
- Pahari Sanyal
- N. Viswanathan
- Chhabi Biswas
- Karuna Bannerjee
- Koel Mallick, actress and daughter of Ranjit Mallick
- Anil Chatterjee
- Arpita Chatterjee, actress and TV personality; wife of Prosenjit Chatterjee
- Subir Banerjee
- Roopa Ganguly
- Uma Dasgupta
- Saswata Chatterjee
- Tarun Kumar
- Anup Kumar
- Ashok Kumar
- Bhanu Bandopadhyay
- Biswajit Chatterjee, actor, producer, director and politician
- Prosenjit Chatterjee, actor, producer and TV personality; son of Biswajit Chatterjee
- Debashree Roy, actress, dancer, choreographer, animal rights activist and politician; ex-wife of Prosenjit Chatterjee
- Jahor Roy
- Kanan Devi
- Sagarika Mukherjee
- Swastika Mukherjee
- Razzak
- Dev, actor, singer, producer, screenwriter and politician
- Jeet, actor, producer and TV personality
- Ruma Guha Thakurta
- Tapas Paul
- Mahua Roy Choudhury
- Mirza Abbas Ali
- Suchitra Sen
- Antara Biswas, actress
- Aparna Sen, actress, filmmaker and scriptwriter
- Moonmoon Sen
- Riddhi Sen, actor
- Riya Sen, actress
- Raima Sen, actress
- Reema Sen, actress
- Rituparna Sengupta, actress
- Omar Sani
- Victor Banerjee, actor
- Moushumi Chatterjee
- Parambrata Chatterjee
- Konkona Sen Sharma, actress and filmmaker
- Varsha Ashwathi
- Abhishek Chatterjee
- Tathagata Mukherjee
- Monali Thakur, singer and actress
- Yash Dasgupta, actor, producer and TV personality
- Bonny Sengupta, actor and politician
- Nusrat Jahan, actress, politician and former Miss Kolkata 2010; wife of Yash Dasgupta
- Mimi Chakraborty, actress, producer and politician
- Anirban Bhattacharya
- Sayani Gupta, actress
- Sayantani Ghosh, actress and TV personality
- Sayak Chakraborty
- Sulakshana Pandit, singer and actress
- Vijayta Pandit, singer and actress
Theatre figures
Photographers
Composers
Hindustani classical singers/maestros
Hindustani classical instrumentalists
Other singers
Contemporary Bollywood musicians
- Abhijeet Bhattacharya, playback singer
- Anupam Roy (b.1982), singer-songwriter
- Alka Yagnik (b. 1966), playback singer
- Arijit Singh (b. 1987), singer, music producer, recordist and music programmer
- Babul Supriyo (b. 1970), playback singer, live performer, television host, actor and politician
- Kumar Sanu (b. 1957), playback singer
- Pritam (b. 1971)
- Sagarika (b. 1970), playback singer and actress
- Shreya Ghoshal (b. 1984), playback singer
- Shaan (b. 1972), playback singer and actor
Dancers
Prominent dancers of the city include:
Magicians
Kolkata is the magic capital of India and has produced internationally famous magicians and performers, including:
Sports
Nobel laureates
Six Nobel Prize winners have been associated with Kolkata:
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
The Ramon Magsaysay Award, sometimes called "Asia's Nobel Prize", is given "to perpetuate his example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society." Kolkata winners include:
- Mother Teresa (1910âÂÂ1997) â Peace and International Understanding, 1962
- Satyajit Ray (1921âÂÂ1992) â Journalism, Literature, and the Creative Communication Arts, 1967
- Gour Kishore Ghosh (1923âÂÂ2000) â Journalism, Literature, and the Creative Communication Arts, 1981
- Mahasweta Devi (1926âÂÂ2016) â Journalism, Literature, and the Creative Communication Arts, 1997
Others
- Samik Bandyopadhyay (born 1940), critic of Indian art, theatre and film
- Tanmoy Bhattacharya (born 1958), politician
- William Carey (1761âÂÂ1834), missioner and reformer
- Laksmikanta Roy Choudhury (1570âÂÂ1649), Brahmin scholar, social and political figure
- Alexander Duff (1806âÂÂ1878), missioner and reformer
- Manny Elias (born 1953), drummer, record producer; original drummer of the Tears for Fears
- David Hare (1775âÂÂ1842), philanthropist and founder of many important and prestigious educational institutions of Kolkata
- Rajendra Prasad (1884âÂÂ1963), politician, the first president of India (from 1950 to 1962)
- Romita Ray (born 1970), art historian
- Radhika Roy (born 1948), journalist
- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 1942), scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic
- Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820âÂÂ1891), philosopher, academic, writer, translator, entrepreneur, social reformer and philanthropist; key figure of the Bengal Renaissance
References